As is well known and understood, those who install and service vertical blinds appreciate that most complaints and requests for repairs that they receive relate to broken tracks or track components. As is also well known and understood by those in the art, those complaints and repair requests that relate to stripped or broken carriers and end controls usually result from a person traversing the blind while its vanes (or "louvers") are in a "closed" position. Although customers are advised by the installer how the vanes are to be in an "open" position before the blind is to be traversed, such information oftentimes is not communicated to other members of the family, or to guests who may thereafter seek to traverse the blind when the vanes are "closed".
Whether the vane be constructed of fabric, aluminum, polyvinylchloride, etc.--and whether the blind be a 1-way draw or as a center-opening arrangement drawing to either side of a window frame--the typical end result of traversing the blind with the vanes closed frequently results in a need to replace its end control, or a carrier, or a new vane--and it is not unusual to have to replace the entire track, itself, as when many carriers are damaged. Even though the possibility of this resultant damage is well recognized, presently available track installations continue to allow the very real chance of damage to continue. This will be understood to be particularly true where the installation is at a hotel, a motel, or at a commercial place of business where it is difficult, or even impossible, to instruct all possible users as to the correct way to traverse the blind to begin with.
One philosophy in addressing this problem with be seen to be one which prevents the vertical blind from operating at all if anyone attempts to traverse the blind with the vanes in their closed position. Then, pulling on the traverse cord would effectuate no control. One limitation of that, however, is that the user might continue to pull and jerk the traverse cord thinking that it was stuck, and cause further damage and breakage. A preferred approach, however, will be seen as one which automatically operates to place the vanes into their correct open position, automatically, when a user desires to traverse the blind--that is, a construction philosophy which automatically opens the vane prior to its traverse beginning.